Michael Bloomberg's telecommuting approach to running the city--made clear during last Christmas when he was at his Bermuda vacation home, his deputy mayor for operations was at home in Washington, D.C., and his first deputy mayor's whereabout were unknown when a blizzard hit--has come under fire. But the idea from New York City councilman Peter Vallone that New York City mayors inform the city clerk every time they take long-distance, overnight trips outside the city is going nowhere. He made a fairly reasonable case for it, as The New York Times reports:

Mr. Vallone said his bill was intended to prepare the city for “another 9/11-type situation where planes are grounded and phone lines are down, and we need to know immediately who has authority on New York City streets.”

Unfortunately for Vallone, the city's concerned citizens and all those political opportunists who want to use executive vacations as political ammunition--the City Council is not taking up the bill. According to The Times, the Council just wasn't interested in a confrontational showdown with Mayor Michael Bloomberg "who fiercely guards his privacy and insists on his freedom to leave town for the weekend without notifying the public." We suppose this makes sense. If his vacation choices are as garish as his furniture upholstery, we'd want to keep it a secret too.

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John Hudson